2015 STEP Award Honorees

Sarah HeinerStrategic Project LeaderESCO CorporationPortland, OR"I have always been fascinated by how things are made. Visiting the Dole Pineapple Plant at an early age, I realized how important manufacturing is. Manufacturing transforms materials into products that people use every day."

Sarah is a past continuous improvement leader, program manager, plant manager, and operations manager. She has taken on many challenging assignments, since she joined ESCO and excels in them all.

Sarah was instrumental in helping employees transition after a plant shutdown placed hundreds of jobs in jeopardy, including many workers who spoke English as a second language. Under her leadership, the plant pursued and was awarded a Job Training Grant from the Federal Government, and those employees who were ultimately laid off were able to go back to school with tuition, books, and travel covered.

Sarah is committed to impacting others in a positive professional way, including starting a women's network in a 101-year-old steel manufacturing company. The respect that she had earned in her work carried over to the acceptance of this network. She is also the first woman to lead one of the company’s strategic projects, or Breakthrough Objectives. In this role, she is helping establish supply and service stores throughout the globe.

Her success is due in large part to her passion and drive to provide value to an organization and its employees. Her expertise and commitment to manufacturing is exceeded only by her ability to bring people together to get the work done. She has been in the world of manufacturing since 1994 and continues to learn, lead, and teach others. Sarah cares about accomplishing the work while building trust and credibility.